Group walks to commemorate peer's death

Movement alive one year after fatal shooting

Herson Bautista, 19, of Silver Spring leads chanting during a Peace Walk on Saturday in Silver Spring. About 50 youth activists and community organizers took part in the walk, which was held to remember 14-year-old Montgomery Blair High School freshman Tai Lam, who was shot to death on a Ride On bus last year while on his way home from downtown Silver Spring with his friends.

Defying the muggy humidity and looming thunderstorms Saturday afternoon, about 50 youth activists and community organizers met at a bus stop at 8555 Piney Branch Road in Silver Spring for a two-mile peace walk to remember a fallen friend and spread the message of nonviolence.

It was at that same bus stop on Nov. 1, 2008, that 14-year-old Montgomery Blair High School freshman Tai Lam was shot to death on a Ride On bus while on his way home from downtown Silver Spring with his friends. Galvanized by the ferocity of the incident, a youth-led nonviolence group, Mixed Unity, was formed by a coalition of Lam's classmates and members of other youth organizations to promote peace in the troubled neighborhoods of Silver Spring.

Beginning at the bus stop, Mixed Unity was joined by members from local immigrant rights activist group Casa of Maryland, state Sen. Jamie Raskin and members of the Gandhi Brigade youth leadership group as they walked to Wayne Avenue, paraded down Ellsworth Drive chanting peace slogans and ended at the Pyramid Atlantic building at 8230 Georgia Ave.

"Everybody should feel safe," said Mixed Unity member Andre Mons, 18. "They should be able to leave their homes and not worry about whether they will make it home. … We're trying to spread the message of nonviolence, because there's a lot of violence that happens in our community."

Mons and other event organizers were eager to see the march succeed, at least in part to allay concerns that arose when the group's last big event, a concert held on Ellsworth in March, ended in a multiple fights and 34 arrests or citations.

"I saw how everything got out of control with the media saying the "Stop the Violence" concert was itself an act of violence, and that was a horribly wrong way to look at the event," he said.

While the peace walk was much smaller than the 7,000 crowd at the concert, Montgomery County police were still on site to assist the youth in managing traffic along the march route and to ensure the demonstrators were not targeted for further violence, according to Lt. Robert McCullagh.

"Despite the way things went with the "Stop the Violence" concert, we never saw the group that held the concert as the cause of the problems," he said. "But there are some elements in the community who might want to come out and disrupt the activity. We're here to make sure everything goes smoothly."

The man who was charged with Lam's death, 21-year-old Hector Mauricio Hernandez, is a member of the street gang, MS-13.

Mixed Unity organizer Herson Bautista, 19, was quick to point out the lasting success of the relatively new peace movement, saying that, while Mixed Unity has seen its membership decline recently due to members moving away to attend college, he is confident that Lam's legacy will live on.

"It's lost a lot of members, but it's gaining more juice, more momentum," he said. "The movement [for peace] is huge, we're just … a local branch."

Raskin, (D-Dist. 20) of Takoma Park, agreed with Bautista, adding that the very presence of the group of youth and adult activists at Saturday's walk was proof of the peace movement's lasting success.

"All social movements wax and wane, but this one is in a very vibrant phase," he said. "It's pretty amazing in the dog days of summer to have dozens and dozens of young people out here talking about nonviolence … it's a great tribute to a remarkable young man."

Del. Tom Hucker (D-Dist. 20), of Silver Spring, also spoke at the event, praising the peace walkers and encouraging them to hold more activities, even in the face of recent talk about a curfew and special spaces set aside for teens in downtown Silver Spring following the violence at the concert.

"I've heard from some constituents who say, "What's up with all the young people taking over Silver Spring?' " he said to the youths' applause. "You can't put up with that; what you're doing to stand up against hatred, against violence, is as American as apple pie."

Raskin's son, Tommy Raskin, who was friends with Lam and spoke with him about high school only two weeks before the shooting, said he was not nervous about violence in the wake of Lam's death. Raskin will attend Blair High School as a freshman at the end of the month.

"I feel like people have become more conscious and aware of what's going on; people are going to take more precautions," he said. "I guess this incident can also remind everyone that it's important to be safe and take precautions; to stay out of areas where things like this can happen."